- Total value art sold by auction in Australia decreased by $26.5 million to $88.1 million, a fall of over 23%, less than the total sales for 2005 which were $93.1 million.
- Sales of works by Australian artists fell 18.2%, however sales of works by Aboriginal artists declined by only 5%.
- Sales of works by non-Australian artists came back to a more "normal" level of $6.8 million, having been boosted in 2008 to $17.0 million by the sale of three high value sales by Menzies Art Group during that year: Picasso's Sylvette 1954 sold for $6.9 million, Andy Warhol's Head After Picasso 1985 sold for $1.8 million and Pierre Bonnard's Bouquet De Cheminée sold for $1.32 million
- Highest sales price in 2009 for a work by an Australian artist was $1.38 million for Fred William's Evening Sky Upwey 1965. The only other work to make over $1 million was Brett Whiteley's The Sunrise, Japanese: Good Morning! 1988 (our cover lot) which was for $1,320,000.
- In 2008, seven works by Australian artists sold for over $1 million; in 2007, the comparable figure was 22 works.
- The total number of works offered for sale by auction in Australia in 2009 was 16,322 compared with 17,435 in 2008 a decrease of 6.9%
- Total works sold in 2009 decreased only marginally from 11,497 in 2008, to 11,175 in 2009, with the clearance rate (percent sold by number) increasing from 65.6% in 2008 to 68.4% in 2009.
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